1
What Is Development?
Are you sure that you know what “devel-
opment” really means with respect to
different countries? And can you deter-
mine which countries are more devel-
oped and which are less?
It is somewhat easier to say which coun-
tries are richer and which are poorer. But
indicators of wealth, which reflect the
quantity of resources available to a society,
provide no information about the alloca-
tion of those resources—for instance,
about more or less equitable distribution
of income among social groups, about the
shares of resources used to provide free
health and education services, and about
the effects of production and consumption
on people’s environment. Thus it is no
wonder that countries with similar average
incomes can differ substantially when it
comes to people’s quality of life: access to
education and health care, employment
opportunities, availability of clean air and
safe drinking water, the threat of crime,
and so on. With that in mind, how do we
determine which countries are more devel-
oped and which are less developed?
Goals and Means of Development
Different countries have different priori-
ties in their development policies. But to
compare their development levels, you
would first have to make up your mind How do we
about what development really means to determine which
you, what it is supposed to achieve.
Indicators measuring this achievement
countries are more
could then be used to judge countries’ developed and
relative progress in development. which less?
Is the goal merely to increase national
wealth, or is it something more subtle?
Improving the well-being of the majority
of the population? Ensuring people’s free-
dom? Increasing their economic security?
Recent United Nations documents
emphasize “human development,” mea-
sured by life expectancy, adult literacy,
access to all three levels of education, as
well as people’s average income which is
a necessary condition of their freedom of
choice. In a broader sense the notion of
human development incorporates all
aspects of individuals’ well-being, from
their health status to their economic and
political freedom. According to the
Human Development Report 1996, pub-
lished by the United Nations
Development Program, “human devel-
opment is the end—economic growth a
means” (p.1).
It is true that economic growth, by
increasing a nation’s total wealth, also
7
BEYOND ECONOMIC GROWTH

enhances its potential for reducing fruits of human development such as

poverty and solving other social prob-
lems. But history offers a number of
examples where economic growth was
not followed by similar progress in
human development. Instead growth was
achieved at the cost of greater inequity,
higher unemployment, weakened democ-
racy, loss of cultural identity, or overcon-
sumption of resources needed by future
generations. As the links between eco-
nomic growth and social and environ-
mental issues are better understood,
experts including economists tend to
agree that this kind of growth is
inevitably unsustainable—that is, it can-
not continue along the same line for long.
To be sustainable, economic growth
must be constantly nourished by the
improvements in workers’ knowledge
and skills along with opportunities for
their efficient use: more and better jobs,
better conditions for new businesses to
grow, and greater democracy at all levels
of decisionmaking (Figure 1.1).
Conversely, slow human development
can put an end to fast economic growth.
According to Human Development Report
1996, “during 1960–1992 not a single
country succeeded in moving from lop-
sided development with slow human
development and rapid growth to a vir-
tuous circle in which human develop-
ment and growth can become mutually
reinforcing.” Since slower human devel-
opment has invariably been followed by
slower economic growth, this growth
pattern was labeled a “dead end.”

Figure 1.1 Economic growth and human development

Means:
Economic growtha

Conditions enabling Conditions enabling

economic growth human development
• People's knowledge and • Health services
skills (human capital) • Education services
• Efficient use of human capital • Employment opportunities
• Sound economic policy • Democracy
• ? Goal: • Environmental protection
• ? Human developmentb • ?
• ? • ?
• ?

a. See the Glossary about the difference between economic growth and economic development.
b. One should distinguish between indicators that measure components of human development (such as health and literacy)
and those that measure its conditions (such as health services and education).

8
 1. WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?

Sustainable Development Commission on Environment and

Sustainable development is a term widely
used by politicians all over the world even
though the notion is still rather new and
lacks a uniform interpretation. Important
as it is, the concept of sustainable devel-
opment is still being developed and the
definition of the term is constantly being
revised, extended, and refined. Using this
book, you can try to improve the defini-
tion as you learn more about the relation-
ships among its main components—the
economic, social, and environmental fac-
tors of sustainable development—and as
you decide on their relative significance
based on your own system of values.
According to the classical definition,
given by the United Nations World
Development in 1987, development is
sustainable if it “meets the needs of the
present without compromising the abil-
ity of future generations to meet their
own needs.” It is usually understood that
this “intergenerational” justice would be What are the
impossible to achieve in the absence of necessary
present-day social justice, if the economic
activities of some groups of people con-
conditions for
tinue to jeopardize the well-being of peo- sustainable
ple belonging to other groups or living in development?
other parts of the world. Imagine, for
example, that continuing deforestation of
the Amazon basin, known for its out-
standing biodiversity, leads to the extinc-
tion of an unresearched plant species that
could help cure acquired immune defi-
ciency syndrome (AIDS), a lethal disease
threatening people all over the world. Or

Figure 1.2 Objectives of sustainable development

Economic objectives
• Growth
• Efficiency
• Stability
• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?

Social objectives
• Equity Environmental
• Social cohesion objectives
• Social mobility • Healthy environment
• Participation for humans
• Cultural identity • Rational use of
• ? renewable natural
• ? resources
• ? • Conservation of
• ? nonrenewable natural
resources
• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?

9
BEYOND ECONOMIC GROWTH
consider emissions of greenhouse gases,
generated mainly by industrial countries,
which can lead to global warming and
flooding of certain low-lying islands—
resulting in the displacement and impov-
erishment of entire nations.
Social justice defined as equality of
opportunities for well-being, both
10
within and among generations of peo-
ple, can be seen as having at least three
aspects: economic, social, and environ-
mental. Only development that manages
to balance these three groups of objec-
tives can be sustained for long (Figure
1.2). Conversely, ignoring one of the
aspects can threaten economic growth as
well as the entire development process.